1 Mar 2009

Having successfully carried through the second generation of economic reforms in pursuance of the liberalization agenda, India now looks forward for a broad-based reform in the economic setting of the country. Towards this agenda, the Government of India announced few years back its desire to transform the existing scenario of both direct and indirect taxes.

On the direct tax side, the Ministry of Finance made public its ongoing task of rewriting the Income Tax Act towards simplifying the law that exists and also with a view to broaden the tax base as suggested by the Kelkar Committee (Task Force on Direct Taxes).

On the indirect tax frontier, the then Finance Minister Mr. P. Chidambaram went a step ahead than that suggested by the Kelkar Committee (Task Force on Indirect Taxes) and made clear the intent of the Government to adopt a harmonized system of taxation of commodities by transforming the hitherto operational regime wherein sales tax (or VAT) was charged and levied by the State Governments and tax on services being levied by the Central Government.

Unarguably the desire to streamline the existing indirect tax structure with a harmonized and uniform levy is only in furtherance of the national aspirations of a rational tax structure which not only avoids the cascading effects but also promotes the entrepreneurial initiatives and economic activity on the whole.

Pursuant to our initiate "of providing insights into law's whys and hows", we have worked upon a research paper on 'Goods and Service Tax (GST)' as envisaged for India. We hope it would provide useful insights to the reader as to the proposed changes and the benefits envisaged in this transformation to GST.

The Motivation !!!

Rule 46 of the 'Standards of Professional Conduct and Etiquette' prescribed by the Bar Council of India requires that "Every advocate shall in the practice of the profession of law bear in mind that any one genuinely in need of a lawyer is entitled to legal assistance even though he cannot pay for it fully or adequately and that within the limits of an Advocate’s economic condition, free legal assistance to the indigent and oppressed is one of the highest obligations an advocate owes to society."

Sharing this "vision for a better-world" and serving to the Humanity, this blog is a small attempt by a group of like-minded lawyers to spread the word on "LAW" across the society.

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